Bob Dylan finally makes sense....

Capt369's post shows the depth of thinking about music for a whole lot of people and I think that's fine but it's neither interesting or thought provoking in itself.
Audiogon is filled with this level of comment time and time again on music.

Dylan's comments aren't particularly clear nor is the context but I do think it is more to do with the CD format and the clear trend towards the disposable aspect of modern music.
There is a certain validity in some of those comments and sure perhaps an element of somebody who has just got old and bitter.
Indeed maybe he does sound a bit like an Audiophile.
:-)

One things for sure not every word uttered by Dylan should be seen as a statement from on high.
Dylan would be the first to admit that.
Once you start to realise that he never believed any of the hype and labels bestowed upon him you might start to open up to the music.

One things for sure not every word uttered by Dylan should be seen as a statement from on high.

Good point.

How quickly I forget that I'm having internal dialogue with a journalist, and not directly their source. Wasn't the point of the article to evoke this sort of reaction? If so, I for one was roped in.

"Pistol shots ring out in the barroom night..."

I agree with Ben.

Watch the Scorsese film on Dylan and you will see the constant sarcastic and playfully irrelevant Dylan.

Clearly a guy who "gets it" and doesn't take himself or the industry seriously.

Amazing poet, and he loved loud rock and roll!

Steve

Sroybal: irrelevant or irreverent?

If you don't get Dylan, that's too bad. Over-rated? Surely you jest. Can't sing? Ask any artist who has tried to cover a Dylan song if he can't sing. They tell a much different story. Producing a pleasant tone with your voice isn't really the point at all, if you consider music to be a form of communication and a language all its own. The words you pick and how you give them a unique meaning through your intonation of each word and phrase is the key, and nobody in the 20th century did it better.

Saying that a person can't sing because you don't appreciate that particular tonal quality is like remarking that somebody can't play the clarinet because you don't personally like the sound of clarinets.

He was right about recordings, too. They are atrocious, by and large.

I don't agree that no good music has been made in the last 20 years. Lots of good music out there. Badly recorded, though.

Cheers.